Ridwell Recycling Service

by Claire Nimlos

How to Recycle More and Reduce Waste in Landfills with Ridwell: A Personal Experience

Even families who strive to reduce waste by purchasing items with less plastic, recycling aluminum, glass, and cardboard, and composting through homemade methods or curbside services can still struggle with the unavoidable plastic packaging commonly used for food, medication, and more. Additionally, it is challenging to decipher the unclear labeling and greenwashing tactics of major corporations claiming to use recycled or bio-based plastic products. How can consumers determine the best way to minimize their environmental impact when dealing with this plastic waste stream?

Ridwell is among several nationwide services available for consumers to recycle their plastic films, multilayer plastic packaging, and other difficult-to-recycle items (such as batteries or light bulbs). Services like Ridwell provide a pickup option, similar to trash or recycling, where items are left outside your door on a regular schedule. Others, like Terracycle, offer pre-labeled boxes that can be shipped back to the company once filled. Additionally, many local retailers provide free recycling options. You can find locations for recycling plastic films (grocery bags, bread bags, etc.) at stores like Kohls or Walmart, plastic packaging (plastic envelopes) at places like your local King Soopers or Safeway, used batteries at Batteries Plus, light bulbs at places like Home Depot or Lowes, and used electronics at stores like Best Buy. The advantage of Ridwell is that all these items, along with used clothing/threads and a featured one-time category, can be collected from your doorstep regularly. The sign-up and collection process is straightforward, with online guides provided along with your initial kit and email reminders during the week of your pickup (we do bi-monthly at $18 a month). 

My family, including my parents and husband, collaborated to gather plastic waste from our two households under a single Ridwell subscription, which we've kept for over a year. In the picture, you can see examples of our multilayer plastic and plastic film for our bi-monthly pickup. As a group of four people, plus pets, we fill our bags to capacity each time. If we produce an extra large amount of waste for a pickup, Ridwell allows us to add another bag in different categories for an additional $2. Sometimes we have styrofoam packaging; once this accumulates enough to fill the large bag provided, we can add it to our pickup with Ridwell for $10. We can always include used batteries, fabrics/used clothes, and light bulbs in the bin. Ridwell also offers extra categories of your choice, such as bottle caps, bread tags, prescription bottles, electronics, and corks, as you collect these waste streams. Additionally, each pickup features a category that can include a wide range of items, from dead Christmas/holiday lights to books to old ski/snowboard equipment, which typically appear 1-2 times a year. 

One of the great parts of Ridwell is the transparency about where items go. Each category is explained on the website, with metrics on contamination levels in each type. As an example, the plastic films collected by Ridwell go to Trex, a company which makes responsible outdoor products like decking material. Additionally, multilayer plastic is sent to two different companies, ByFusion and Hydroblox, which make building blocks and drainage materials with the waste. A great part of the Ridwell process is that you know where each piece of waste you send gets reused, and you can even further the efforts of Ridwell and these companies by using these products for your next home project. We have dog leashes made from recycled rope from Ridwell, flower pots made from the plastic, and earrings from recycled old skis.

Although as a society we need to reduce our reliance on single-use plastics for packaging of food, shipping, and various other household items, a system like Ridwell to reuse the plastic films and multilayer plastic we cannot avoid provides an opportunity to improve our personal and households carbon footprint.